"Operation Exodus," a policing plan for an end-of-the-world scenario involving a mostly white group of ex-police volunteers and a .50-caliber machine gun, inspired in part from the Book of Exodus in the Bible

Local residents may remember then-President George W. Bush's address to the nation was made out of Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City immediately after the attacks. At that time, Deen's men and about 100 other patrol cars barricaded entry to the base to protect the president from what turned out to be the nonexistent threat of an assault on the base.

Deen's office contacted more than 300 parish residents it thought would be useful during a similar emergency. Two hundred were chosen. Most of these people are ex-police officers and sheriff's office deputies that the sheriff's office was familiar with, Deen said.

"Niggers don't expel Jews! This isn't what we brought you to Israel for!" are just some of the degrading slurs Border Guard officers reported hearing from masked settlers. "a bunch of veiled people started yelling at us: Who are you to expel us from our home? An Ethiopian does not expel a Jew! A nigger does not expel a Jew!" , "Who told you to come and evacuate us? You Ethiopians. What are you, this State's niggers? Olmert's niggers?"

An Italian and American journalist cover a rally on the freedom of speech concerning enw internet laws tand a desire to change the current state of the government in Rome, Italy and in the process uncover a unique perspective on politics in Italy.

Shareholders at BP and Shell will get the chance to vote at upcoming AGMs on whether to force oil giants to come clean on their Canadian tar sands involvement.Institutional investors including The Co-operative Asset Management and Rathbone Greenbank have co-signed a 'special resolution,' which would force the two companies to fully disclose and justify their involvement in Canadian tar sands.

The oil sands in Canada are the largest reserve of petroleum in the world outside of Saudi Arabia with an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of oil trapped in a mixture of sand, water and clay.However, the energy needed to extract and process the oil results in greenhouse gas emissions per barrel three times those of conventional oil. The spread of the tar sands exploration and production is also destroying forests and impacting on local wildlife and communities.Shell has invested almost one-third of its resources in extracting oil from tar sands and produces 155,000 barrels a day.

University of West England professor Lee Salter says the next stage of his research into BBC's news coverage of Venezuela will depend very much on funding. Unfortunately, British universities today are refusing to fund research, unless it has links with or sponsored by industry/corporations. The funding of independent research is fast becoming a thing of the past.

The Latin American heads of state congratulated Chavez on this initiative and highlighted its importance as a tool to continue giving impetus to Latin American unity.With a network that includes over 100 radio stations in the continent, Radio del Sur will be broadcast in Argentina, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Colombia, the United States, Angola, Iran, Vietnam, Libya, Algeria, Gambia, Benin and China.Sixty percent of the programming will be made in Caracas and the rest will be shows prepared by the associated radio stations of Latin America and the Caribbean.

"...here comes the overriding philosophy that Israel espouses and which the west in particular so surprisingly accepts time and again. Because it is a nation founded on guilt and on the belief that most of the world is "against them" Israel's so-called security considerations justify any and all abominations, first and foremost murder. This is the logic that Israel used in the killing of over 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the rationale for the assassination of Abu Jihad, Sheikh Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantisi. This is why the Goldstone Report was trampled on by Israel and its allies and this is why Israel's occupation of Palestine has endured for over 40 years along with all the violations this entails for the occupied people."

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's flamboyant president, now should be the object of pity. He has boxed himself in, trapped by his own hubris.His country is falling apart. How, for example, did Venezuela find itself plagued with electricity shortages so severe that the government imposed blackouts nationwide for several hours each day?

(first of all the worldwide economic crisis was created by north as far as venezuela is concerned ...the economy is not in shambles and its actually better prepared to deal with the effects of wall street geenrated crisis,as are most latin american countries part of unasur and alba with few exceptions(neoliberal favoring nations)see venezuelas economic indicators...Report Examines Economy and Social Indicators During the Chávez Decade in Venezuela http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela-2009-02.pdf )

It happens that a hydroelectric dam on the Caroní River generates almost three-quarters of the nation's electricity. But a drought has dropped the river's water level below what the hydroelectric generator needs to function at full power, setting off the blackouts and a water shortage. That prompted the Bolivarian president to issue an important decree. Venezuelans, he ordered, were no longer permitted to sing in the shower.

(first of all yes this is the case and confirmed by Brasilian government and energy technicians and engineers who went to venezuela to study the problem and teach them the technological expertise in dealing with these incidents(Brazil itself has better experience dealing with similar problems with its hydroelectric dam in Para state)see...Brazil helps Venezuela in power generation http://www.americaeconomia.com.br/note.aspx?Note=389975

The Brazilians will pass on the knowledge gained through experience that occurred in Pará, in its own Plant Complex. In the past, the plant was subject to difficulties similar to those occurring in Venezuela, so the technicians at Eletrobrás have experience to deal with failure)now as far as the claim he ordered venezuelans were no longer to sing in showers,its an outrigth lie,even media in brasil acknowledges this is how it occurred(At the end of last year, Chavez even went on television and urged Venezuelans avoid long baths, so as not to use bathtubs. Humorous, he also said the ideal was not to sing in the shower, because it would extend the time of use of water)

The government called the electricity crisis an "act of Mother Nature." I call it an act of incompetence. This wasn't an earthquake, a hurricane or some other calamity that fell upon Venezuela with little notice. The water level had been dropping gradually for many months. Chavez and everyone else could see this crisis coming but did nothing effective to prepare.

Any other leader would have negotiated deals to buy electric generators - or purchased power from friendly neighbors. Oh, I forgot. Chavez doesn't have any friendly neighbors.

(that what he's done see above,and as far as not having any friends in region...i suggest standford university fire mr brinkely, this fraudulent so called professor of journalism,for one because if he doesnt know who created ALBA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Alliance_for_the_Americas and the alliance of nations who joined and their projects of mutual cooperation including new currency SUCRE used by all member nations already in effect,he isnt fit to teach journalism,because he isnt even properly informed concerning region,therefore he isnt fit to teach any journalism anywhere.

Inflation runs at 25 percent, the highest in Latin America, and the nation remains mired in a stubborn recession. Last month Chavez devalued the nation's currency, the bolivar, from 2.15 to the dollar up to 4.30. Suddenly his citizens' money was worth half of what it was the day before.

(first of all the devaluation was a revaluation and even the opposition had called for it years ago as far back as 2005-2007...now the move will boost domestic production while reducing imports,clearly a move that was long overdue...the move will also boost revenue from oil profits,wich will fund the diversification of non oil sectors domestically and boost social program spending...lets look a bit deeper...Devaluation To Bring Benefits And Challenges http://www.allbusiness.com/economy-economic-indicators/money-currencies-interest/13710443-1.html

it will now get twice the amount of bolivars for each dollar collected. State oil firm PdVSA , which wobbled severely in 2009, will be a key beneficiary too. Indeed, the cost-side of its balance sheet is largely in bolivars but revenues in dollars, the devaluation will bring a serious improvement to its bottom line, in turn lifting the government's take. To be sure, the one-off surge in state revenues will enable Chávez to extend the numerous social programmes on which his political support crucially depends.

(yes venezuela has high inflation but its been highly effective in maintaining price controls limits on currency ,and combating speculation while subsidizing essential products like produce and other necessities at low price thru publicly owned supermarket chains...also bear in mind unemployment is only at 7 % !!!keep in mind also that new sucre currency now in effect between the region has also abandoned dollar as a means of debt ,trade, and commerce transactions between ALBA nations...an excellent idea sure to put a dent in the already over valued dollar wich is being dumped by many nations and is on verge of collapse...

whats interesting is how mr brinkley attacks Chavez economic policies irrationally when if properly analized over a 10 year period and compared against the state the economy was under before he took office ,its acomplishments (free education,free healthcare,subsidized food,subsidized housing,extreme poverty reduction by 72%,overall poverty reduction by HALF!!!unemployment at lowest in continent 7%!!!)are nothing short of the most progressive policies the world has seen in last 500 years!!!

now why isnt mr brinkley commenting on us economy in shambles?why isnt mr brinkley just as critical of the us generated global ponzy scheme thats responsible for this world wide economic crisis?wheres brinkley on these matters,see...Max Keiser: Dollar to be buried way before 2018 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7dH4e8HYFA

vs Joel Brinkley's Article on Richard Falk:Does It Demonstrate the Right "Frame of Mind" to Teach Journalism at Stanford? http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20090103031910871 We can thus see that Brinkley's call for Falk's resignation or dismissal rests solely upon Falk's belief that the events of September 11 "warrant further investigation." It is, in other words, Falk's open-mindedness about this issue that makes him unqualified to write about human rights abuses in the Palestinian Territories. How can Brinkley justify such a claim?

Brazil’s president said he plans to provide funding for the construction of an additional one million homes that will be owned by the poor in Latin America’s largest nation.President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s programme that helps the poor buy apartments initially envisioned construction of one million homes.But Mr da Silva told business executives in El Salvador that he will expand it to eventually build twice that many.The popular programme – known as My Life, My Home – funnels loans from state banks to poor Brazilians who probably would never be able to own homes without the help.The campaign was announced amid the global financial crisis and has also helped Brazil’s important construction sector

Yesterday, the Frente de Resistencia in Honduras carried out a massive protest march in Tegucigalpa. Coverage by Honduras' Tiempo, which provided the headline quoted above, reported estimates of 20,000 participants who marched to demand constitutional reform and accountability for human rights violations that followed the coup d'etat of June 28, 2009.

The coup in Honduras has all but been forgotten these days, but the people's struggle there goes on. Jose Alcoff was there recently, and contributed this report recapping the turmoil, and checking in with the social movements there about what's happening next.

He then moved on to talk about the Left’s bête noire – the rich. He told the cheering crowd that “basic services are public services and must not be privatized.” The crowd responded by chanting “Calderón out!” recalling their own president’s recent decision to dismiss over 40,000 employees of the state electricity company for the purposes of privatization. Morales’ attack on the upper class continued as he told the crowd that, “There are more of us than these modern millionaires. They have all the wealth but are small in number, whereas we are poor but are the majority.”

He told the crowd that these gold-diggers were only interested in exploiting natural resources for their personal financial gain. The crowd listened as Morales spoke of the importance of getting middle-class citizens and intellectuals on side, to fight the oligarchs. Morales spoke of how he had no fear when he nationalized Bolivia’s resources, and he applauded the armed forces for their support during this time. Despite the fear-mongering of many international economists, the president’s policy was vindicated when Bolivia had it first fiscal surplus since 1940.

"When Herzl originated the Zionist idea, he did not intend to found the “State of the Jews” in Palestine, but in Argentina. Even when writing his book, he devoted to the country only a few lines, under the headline “Palestine or Argentina?” However, the movement he created compelled him to divert his endeavors to the Land of Israel, and so the state came into being here.''This coming Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Israel will consider an application by a group of Israeli citizens to compel the Interior Ministry to register them as belonging to the “Israeli nation”. Odd? Indeed.

The Israeli Interior Ministry recognizes 126 nations, but not the Israeli nation. An Israeli citizen can be registered as belonging to the Assyrian, the Tatar or the Circassian nation. But the Israeli nation? Sorry, no such thing. According to the official doctrine, the State of Israel cannot recognize an “Israeli” nation because it is the state of the “Jewish” nation. In other words, it belongs to the Jews of Brooklyn, Budapest and Buenos Aires, even though these consider themselves as belonging to the American, Hungarian or Argentine nations. Messy? Indeed.

Mattson said the U.S. had reached out to the Chilean government. In cases of natural disasters, the affected country usually accepts an offer of help made by the State Department, which then could ask the Defense Department to help with any relief mission.

comment-notice part where its offers help wich if granted it would be coordinated thru defense department ...as a future launching pad for a continual agressive campaign to destabilize region against progressive governments...(i dont post any msm garbage,just thougth this merited attention)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has repeated his request to the United States government for the extradition of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, who was responsible for the Caracazo massacre, PL reported.

Chávez commented that U.S President Barack Obama should hand over Posada Carriles, a fugitive of Venezuelan justice and the mastermind behind the mid-flight explosion of a Cuban passenger plane in 1976 that caused the deaths of the 73 people on board.

During a telephone interview on the "La Hojilla" television program Thursday morning, the president also called for former president Carlos Andrés Pérez to be handed over. Despite being wanted by the Venezuelan judicial system, Pérez is also protected by the United States.

The Venezuelan people commemorated on Saturday the 21st anniversary of the Caracazo, a slaughter that occurred during the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez on 27 and 28 February 1989, when an unknown number of people died. Carlos Andrés Pérez (1989-1993), exerted his second term in Venezuela when a rebellion broke out against his civic government. Popular sectors rose against the application of economic measures advised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The business plan included an increase in fares for public transport and gasoline.

The popular outbreak began on 27 February 1989 for a protest in Guarenas (metropolitan area) and later expanded throughout the country.
A day earlier, the Ministry of Energy and Mines announces 30 percent hike in prices of petrol and the increase of urban public transport fares and inter-urban as well as 30 percent from 27 February valid for 3 months, after which could be increased up to 100 percent. The protests, strongly repressed by the police and army, according to the Government left about 300 dead Perez, however, witnesses, investigators and human rights organizations say more than a thousand.

Many victims were buried in mass graves, specifically in the area of La Peste, located in the Southern General Cemetery in Caracas. Venezuelan authorities have now begun the process to identify exhumed remains . The Caracazo was the trigger for 2 thousand 357 men between civilians and military, led by the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, to organize a rebellion against Carlos Andrés Pérez, who had fled leaving country in poverty, corruption and a reign of impunity over the South American nation . On Thursday, Chavez recalled during the launch ceremony of the signal of Radio South (see...http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=84439 )from the Municipal Theater of Caracas, that day the village was massacred by government authorities, "a fact that one could not forget."

Chavez explained that after the slaughter " the National Armed Forces grew into the need to shake off the curse of having shed the blood of the people." The president took the opportunity to extend an invitation to all Venezuelans involved in a major mobilization to remember the fallen of the slaughter of the Caracazo. The merger will take place in the popular area of El Valle, south of the capital, where the people lived thru most part of the repression by the repressive forces of government Perez said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.

The Bicentennial Youth Front (FJB)will also take this weekend every square at Bolivar of Venezuela to commemorate this date. "Through murals they will speak their mind about youth achievements in 11 years of revolution, in contrast to the climate of oppression and social exclusion generated by the social upheaval of 27 and 28 February 1989," said the member of FJB, Erick Goicoechea

,in fact he became a most vocal opponent of Chavez's democratically ellected government and has close ties to national endowment for democracy and other conservative groups working thru opposition groups who took part in the first coup against Chavez...

Five hundred Montreal artists announce support for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli state.The following is a call from Montreal artists to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid:

Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1,400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents.

IDNA, Occupied West Bank, Feb 27, 2010 (IPS) - Israel’s illegal occupation and continued expropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank has left 2.5 million Palestinians living there with effectively less than 40 percent of the territory."My family used to own 104 dunums of land here, (10 dunums = 1 hectare), but the Israelis have expropriated 100 dunums of family land for the separation barrier. If I still had that land I would be earning sufficient to live very comfortably," says Al Badan.

"Idna used to comprise 45,000 dunums of land in 1948 prior to the establishment of Israel. Following the 1948 and 1967 wars and occupation Israel expropriated 30,000 dunums of Idna’s land, 4,000 dunums for the separation barrier alone," Abed Tumaizeh, Idna’s spokesman told IPS."Two-weeks ago Israeli soldiers stormed Idna and destroyed five wells and springs saying they were constructed illegally. The livelihoods of 40 farmers and their dependents have been effected," Tumaizeh told IPS. "Last year the ICA destroyed 10 dairy farms in our village effecting 30 families. A further 70 home-owners have been given demolition orders," adds Tumaizeh. The destruction of Palestinian buildings is part of a deliberate Israeli policy to establish facts on the ground and keep as much of the West Bank as possible under Israeli control.

Much of the equipment provided by the U.S. for training had gone missing. During site visits to three police training centers in Bamiyan, Herat and Kandahar, the inspectors randomly selected 123 items from an inventory list of vehicles, weapons and electronics, but could only locate 34. In Kandahar, nine "sensitive items" - pistols, rifles, and scopes - could not be located.

A subsequent check up at DynCorp's headquarters in Kabul showed that the weapons were signed out by company personnel. Of 89 non-sensitive items, only two could be located. The Kandahar site coordinator explained that the list was inaccurate and out of date. Money, too, was unaccounted for or misappropriated. Inspectors quoted a preliminary audit that identified 322 million dollars in invoices for the State department's global police training programme that were approved "even though they were not allowable, allocable, or reasonable."

Roughly 50 percent of the approved invoices that the inspectors reviewed had errors. The inspectors general recommended that the State Department should return a "minimum" of 80 million dollars from the Afghanistan budget to the Pentagon.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Brave students are walking from Miami to Washington, D.C. to demand our nation’s leaders fix our failed immigration system. They have just entered the Deep South and have encountered extreme anti-immigrant sentiment — including the Ku Klux Klan. Now more than ever they need our support so they know they’re not alone.
http://trail2010.org/action/?ref_by=2517-1401

Along the "Trail of Dreams,” their 1,500 mile walk, they will call on our nation’s leaders to ensure that young people like themselves, and all immigrants, have the chance to realize their potential and fully participate in society.
These students are taking a courageous stand on behalf of millions of others who suffer under our failed immigration system. Please stand with them as they walk through hostile territory and take their message to Washington.

AIDESEP and the regional organizations FENAMAD (Madre de Dios), ORAU (Ucayali) and ORPIO (Loreto) secured from INDEPA a commitment to draw up a management plan for the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve for Isolated Peoples within 90 days. One of five such reserves in Peru, this Territorial Reserve was created in 2002 for the protection Mashco-Piro, Yora and Amahuaca bands in voluntary isolation in the rainforest. However, the government has done little to secure the reserve from encroaching development interests. (FENAMAD, Feb. 15)

However on Feb. 4, just days before the talks opened, President Alan García introduced a bill that would allow the forcible removal of local populations from lands slated for development projects found to be in the "public interest." Indigenous rights advocates are lobbying against the bill. (Servindi, Feb. 10)

And there is a third piece of recent history that the nuclear accusation ignores: the lack, as in Iraq, of any evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Not only the U.N.’s nuclear inspectors say that there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, all of the several American intelligence organizations have unanimously agreed, not once, but twice, in uncommon public declarations that there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Each sensational story of proof to the contrary that keeps glittering in the headlines of the western media has been clearly and consistently refuted, as shown by the reports of people like Porter and Ritter. It is the reports and not the refutations, though, that make the headlines. And that’s an old and effective trick for misshaping public opinion: report the error in large letters, but not the correction that follows.

comment-also see...richard hass from CFR has been vocal calling for regime change,just last nigth to my disgust i seen him making the case for military intervention on the bill maher show,wich of course,maher himself called iran,the''bad''guys...stay tuned for ww3...

Johnny Rivas is a vocal member of the Unified Movement of Aguan Farmers (MUCA), an organization that claims over 3,500 families demanding the redistribution of land in the North Coast of Honduras. For over five years Rivas has fought for land rights in Aguan, known as the ‘capital of agrarian reform.’ MUCA formed in 2001 in order to reclaim lands that Rivas says "were transferred to corrupt businessmen under fraudulent terms." Rivas has recently been a target of constant death threats for his participation in the movement.

‘Stop dumping on Aboriginal Rights’, say anti-Intervention campaigners The Intervention Rollback Action Group in Alice Springs today said that the imposition of a nuclear dump on NT Aboriginal Land is yet another clear breach of ALP election commitments and demonstrates contempt for Aboriginal rights.IRAG says that Intervention policies, which only resource communities deemed ‘viable’ by government, are exacerbating pressure on Aboriginal people to give up their land for destructive projects like the nuclear dump.

“Our people in remote areas are being starved of resources through the Intervention and the NT government’s ‘hub towns’ policy. They are coming in as refugees to Alice Springs. The Intervention housing program (SIHIP) will build no new houses for most communities and won’t even upgrade existing housing to public housing standards. Now Labor is continuing Howard’s policy– saying communities can get access to $12 million for basic infrastructure like housing and roads, only if they accept a nuclear waste dump”, said Barbara Shaw from the
Intervention Rollback Action Group.

"One has to keep in mind the nature of organizations that end up on the U.S. State Department terrorist list. Many are indigenous nations seeking accommodation with oppressive states. Unfortunately, many of these oppressive states are also friends of the United States government and the corporations it represents.

If murder and theft is official U.S. policy, then any people that defends themselves from the financial cartel is automatically on the list. Indeed, if one looks at the history of liberation struggles, the United States has supported apartheid down the line."The US Supreme Court heard arguments today reported by the news media as an issue of US Constitutional First Amendment Rights. The Courts decision will have much larger...

British Conservative MEP Dan Hannan is jealous that Europe does not have its own anti-tax "Tea Party" movement, as in the US, and has decided to start one himself. On Saturday (27 February), the eurosceptic deputy is to launch the "Brighton Tea Party," in reference to the Boston Tea Party that kicked off the American Revolution and, in recent times, has sponsored a series of anti-Obama demonstrations against stimulus spending, healthcare legislation and climate change bills.

In the US, the protests have been hailed by figures such as right-wing talk radio commentator Rush Limbaugh and ex-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Democrats and progressives have called them "astroturf" - a fake grassroots campaign that in reality is bankrolled by corporations and conservative think-tanks.The British version is backed by the Freedom Association, a libertarian pressure group of which Mr Hannan is a member.The anti-tax element is not the only aspect of the US movement which the Tory politician admires, being also a strong critic of publicly funded healthcare.

A recent poll found that almost half of respondents would vote for Uribe if he were permitted to run again mainly due to his national security policies. Nevertheless, Uribe has been hounded by numerous scandals such as the "false positives" affair that implicated the country's military and the "para-politics" scandal. The latter has implicated numerous politicos and officials with ties to Colombia's rightist paramilitaries including possibly one of the president's cousins:Mario Uribe Escobar, a former senator, was detained following an order from the Colombian Supreme Court...

Mario Uribe, who denies any wrongdoing, was detained for several months in 2008 but subsequently released for lack of evidence linking him to paramilitaries...
Former paramilitary leaders have alleged that Mario Uribe conspired with their groups in the 1990s to take over farmland in agriculturally rich regions of Colombia that were under paramilitary control.

Chevron's Arbitration Claim "Worthy Of Contempt": Southern District Court Of New York Filing http://tiny.cc/29fhK

In the brief, the plaintiffs argue that Chevron agreed to accept Ecuadorian jurisdiction when the Southern District Court of New York dismissed the case on forum non conveniens grounds in 2002, following Chevron’s submission of 14 affidavits describing Ecuador’s court system as fair and just. “But now, in a case of transferor’s remorse, Chevron seeks to break its promise….Even worse…in a forum where plaintiffs cannot even appear,” the legal brief states.

The plaintiffs also argue that Chevron can not cite any case where a defendant was permitted, after years of litigation, to dismiss the case through a third-party arbitration where plaintiffs could not even appear. “Chevron’s position is not only unprecedented, it is worthy of contempt,” the plaintiffs argue.

Constitutional Court President Mauricio Gonzalez announced Friday that the court voted 7 to 2 against the referendum to allow Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to run for a third term and called the document "unconstitutional in its entirety".

The "purple movement" back on the streets in Rome on february 27 to protest against the laws made by Berlusconi to save himself from trials. A demonstration self-financed by those who think that justice should be equal for all.

“They said they would cooperate with us and will give me military equipment, arms and machine guns. They also promised to give us a base along the border with Afghanistan next to Iran,” Rigi said.

“They [were] prepared to give [us] training and/or any assistance that [we] would require, in terms of telecommunications security and procedures as well as other support, the Americans said they would be willing to provide it at an extensive level,” he added.Rigi indicated that the relationship with U.S. intelligence continued through the election of Barack Obama and up to the present day.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested Friday the organization might one day be called on to provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.

"That day has not yet come, but I think it is intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now," he said in a speech on the future mandate of the 186-nation Washington-based lending organization."comment-The IMF is a global banking cartel run by the NWO, just like the Fed, but bigger and with a lot more Euro-trash commies.

Financial institutions based and incorporated in the United States have now been fingered by Dubai Police as having issued credit cards to some of the now dozens of suspected assassins of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The fraudulent cards were said to be used to book hotel rooms and pay for air travel.

The firms allegedly involved include Meta Financial Group Inc, based in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Payoneer, a New York-based online payment company that provides pre-paid Mastercards.Payoneer also has a research and development centre based in Tel Aviv. (I find it mildly amusing that Payoneer is pimped out on the Birthright Israel website).

I ask that the U.S. STRONGLY CONDEMN the Lobo administration for continued human rights violations and call for the protection of all human rights defenders and media workers in Honduras, while cutting military aid to the country. I also urge the U.S. to reject the Lobo administration's proposed Truth Commission, and push for an independent truth process that would thoroughly investigate the human rights violations and other crimes committed under the interim government of Roberto Micheletti, as well as the current administration, instead of simply whitewashing the coup in Honduras. NO BUSINESS AS USUAL. Thank you.”

Two Ottawa universities are going ahead next week with a controversial campaign that links Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the treatment of blacks in apartheid South Africa, despite facing objections by the province's MPPs.Beginning March 1, both Carleton University and the University of Ottawa will host Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), an international event held annually in cities and campuses around the world. Other Canadian cities hosting IAW this year include Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal and Edmonton.

Groups like the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies have condemned the annual event as being anti-Semitic.

comment-facts are that the apartheid practiced on palestinians is against semites and the week long campaign on university campus is also on behalf of semetic palestinian victims...deal with it...

The solidarity and support is warranted: Since January 31, Local-30 members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) have been locked out for standing up to multi-billion dollar multinational mining conglomerate Rio Tinto Group’s strong-arm attempt to slash their basic workers' rights and benefits, busing in replacement workers from its other mines.

“The fact that this money was raised quickly from concerned union families in Southern California indicates that the miners' fight against Rio Tinto’s lockout and corporate bullying tactics is resonating and connecting with the public,” said ILWU spokesperson Craig Merrilees. “This issue has the potential to become a powerful symbol of corporate greed, and a decision by these determined families to stand up and fight is becoming an inspiration to everyone who’s fed up with what’s happening in America today.”

President Uribe met with CIA director Leon Panetta on Thursday to discuss the Colombia-U.S free trade agreement and the over haul of Colombia's scandal-ridden intelligence agency, the DAS.During the hour-long meeting, Panetta agreed to speak directly with President Barack Obama about Uribe's desire to see the trade agreement passed soon.Panetta also praised Uribe's counter-narcotics efforts and his hard-hitting policies against the FARC.The two also discussed how to reform training for DAS personnel.There are currently criminal investigations pending against 40 DAS officials for alleged involvement in the illegal wiretapping of journalists and human rights activists.http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8341-ig-announces-list-of-charges-against-presidential-secretary.html

According to Caracol Radio, Panetta also showed interest in applying the model for a reformed Colombian intelligence in other countries.Defense minister Gabriel Silva, military forces commander General Freddy Padilla, and director of police forces General Oscar Naranjo also attended the meeting. Pre-presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos also reportedly met with Panetta.Silva met privately with Panetta later in the evening to further discuss details about restructuring the DAS, after last year's ongoing spying and wiretapping scandal.http://www.cmi.com.co/?ir=noticia&nota=41119&seccion=7

The Ecologist reported recently that three French farmers have successfully sued chemical companies for cancer and Parkinson’s disease that resulted from their occupational use of pesticides–an issue as widespread as it is under-reported. A cereal farmer with 100,000 hectares of land in in the Vosges region, Dominque Marchal was the first farmer to have his leukemia associated with his daily pesticide use. His wife was determined to get to the bottom of the issue.

Atrazine increases the activity of an enzyme called aromatase that can, in turn, increase levels of estrogen. According to Dr. [Janet] Gray [Board Member and Acting Science Adviser to the Breast Cancer Fund], “This is of great concern when it comes to breast cancer because we know that increased exposures to estrogens are one of the major risk factors for increased incidences of breast cancer.”

A group of about 30 “alijunas” (non indigenous), paramilitaries of the extradited commander of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia AUC JORGE 40, invaded in the dawn of today 19th February 2010 the territory of the indigenous community of Houluy. The invasión which is underway counts on the support from the mayor’s office in Maicao and the office of the Governor of the Department of Guajira. ¿How is this posible?

The Obama Administration’s continuation of former President Bush’s policies in the region undoubtedly helped spur the creation of this new organization, provisionally named the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Most importantly, the Obama team’s ambivalence toward the military coup that overthrew the democratic government of President Mel Zelaya in Honduras last summer provoked deep resentment and distrust throughout the region.

Although the Obama administration was officially against the coup, numerous actions from day one – including the first White House statement that failed to condemn the coup when it happened – made it clear in the diplomatic world that its real position was something different. The last straw came in November 2009 when the Obama administration brokered a deal for the return of Zelaya, and then joined the dictatorship in reneging on it. Washington then stood against the vast majority of the region in supporting the November elections for a new president under the dictatorship, which had systematically repressed the basic rights and civil liberties necessary to an electoral campaign.

Authorities in Spain have launched proceedings to suspend the notorious investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzón. The ostensible reason for the move is his investigation into the fate of 114,000 people who disappeared during the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath

The move comes just as Garzón opened a formal criminal investigation of former White House attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee and other Bush administration officials for their role in authorizing torture at the Guantánamo Bay detention center. Garzón's inquiry will be the first formal examination of alleged criminal activity that could lead to a number of US officials being charged with violations of the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture, both of which have been signed by the United States and ratified by the US Senate.

The oil sands is turning Alberta into an environmental wasteland. Habitat, forestland, water quality are all suffering, and cancer is increasing among First Nations communities. We can no longer stand by and watch while one of the most pristine and biodiverse areas in North America is systematically destroyed for greed. And this oil is now also being prepared to be pumped into the US via a new pipeline being built in to the U.S.

(the Yankee Clipper) which of course, this administration has not mentioned once in all of its talk about "clean" energy and Co2 caps. It is time to tell the CEO of RBC to stop financing this dirty environmentally destructive crime against nature and send a message to those who deem to make a profit from it by greenwashing their intentions and actions by sponsoring Olympic events

Last October, Wayuu Indigenous leader Karmen Ramirez Boscan was in London as a guest of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign. She came to Britain for the AGM of mining multinational BHP Billiton, which is one of the three multinational owners of the Cerrejon coal mine (the other two are Anglo American and Xstrata. All three are listed on the London Stock Exchange. The largest shareholder in Xstrata is the private Swiss company Glencore.) Since returning to Colombia, Karmen and her colleagues have suffered threats from paramilitaries for their organisational work and their criticisms of the Cerrejon mine's operations. Karmen's organisation, Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu, has issued the following Urgent Action.

3 indigenous leaders from the Fuerzas de Mujeres Wayuu (FMW) (Force of Wayuu Women) movement have recently been forced to leave their territory in order to protect their lives. Their work in defence of their territory, as well as their international denunciations about the operations of transnational companies in their territory, have resulted in them being threatened by paramilitaries and the criminalization of their activities. Several members of the Organización Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu have become the target of investigations and extrajudicial followings, by the Uribe government in response to their work. This has all become a lot worse in the last few months.

Apparently, the corporate media doesn't consider it to be newsworthy: the confession to a Colombian prosecutor of 30,000 murders by paramilitaries who are linked to the Alvaro Uribe regime. To date, Associated Press, Reuters and their contracted media outlets remain silent on this latest news. If it had taken place in Somalia, China, Syria, North Korea, Iran or any of Washington's perceived enemies, we would be seeing it on a CNN special report, backed up on the front pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.

The Colombian prosecutor announced on Tuesday (16) impressive data on the activity of paramilitaries in the country. According to a report published by the Office of Justice and Peace Promotion, 4112 ex-combatants of the paramilitary United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) confessed to having committed 30,470 murders in a 20-year period - from mid-'80s to 2003, when it would have begun the process of demobilization.The death toll puts the paramilitary groups in Colombia - a country whose "democracy" is one of the oldest in Latin America - at the same level of dictatorships in the region, like that of Argentina (1976-1983), who left nearly 30 people dead and missing.

In its mission statement, the National Labor Committee (NLC) highlights the problem stating:Transnational corporations (TNCs) now roam the world to find the cheapest and most vulnerable workers.”

They’re mostly young women in poor countries like China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Haiti, and many others working up to 14 or more hours a day for sub-poverty wages under horrific conditions. Because TNCs are unaccountable, a dehumanized global workforce is ruthlessly exploited, denied their civil liberties, a living wage, and the right to work in dignity in healthy safe environments. NLC conducts “popular campaigns based on (its) original research to promote …

Like William the Conqueror who ignored the English battlefield dead, the U.S. government has not identified – nor even made a good-faith effort to estimate – the number of Iraqis and Afghanis who have been killed.That’s because the Bush administration – and now the Obama administration

– have had an official policy of not counting the number of people killed, crippled, rendered homeless, starved, or condemned to disease and possibly insanity.By suppressing the human toll, the war still can be sold as benefiting the Iraqi people. The reality of their intense suffering, however, is much different from the generally positive image that U.S. propagandists seek to present.

Khadija Sharife investigates how the tax havens that prop small island economies up do so to detrimental effect. She argues that ‘as the G20 spends its time creating a carbon trade market that does little to reduce carbon emissions, multinationals continue to expand their extractive enterprises, dictators continue to siphon off capital, financial firms continue to cash in on pollution and this illicit capital continues to be laundered through offshore locations that are themselves threatened by the rising waters associated with global warming.’

Meanwhile, G20 governments subsidised fossil fuels to the tune of US$300 billion in 2009. So, as the G20 spends its time creating a carbon trade market that does little to reduce carbon emissions, multinationals continue to expand their extractive enterprises, dictators continue to siphon off capital, financial firms continue to cash in on pollution and this illicit capital continues to be laundered through offshore locations that are themselves threatened by the rising waters associated with global warming.

By the late 1980s, connections were being made between repression in South Africa under the state of emergency, and the 'force, might and beatings' with which Israel responded to the unarmed Palestinian uprising of the entire population to throw off the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.As the South African anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu told a New York synagogue in 1989, 'If you changed the names, the description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be a description of what is happening in South Africa.'

Israel's iniquitous treatment of Palestinian people has clear parallels with the discrimination suffered by 'non-white' people under apartheid South Africa, argues the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights. The Israeli state has continued to flout international law in its efforts to annex further territory and marginalise Palestinian people, the coalition argues, calling for the maintenance of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) until Israel ends its occupation.

From January, 2007, 43 union and peasant leaders have been murdered by paramilitary officers involved with companies and the government.The figures were published by the Unionist, Indigenous and Peasant Movement from Guatemala, a coalition of grassroots organizations which issued in February a report called “Guatemala: The price of union liberty”.The report finds that the situation in terms of human rights in Guatemala has worsened with President Alvaro Colom, who took office in January, 2008, and who considers himself a social-democrat.

In 2008, for instance, 16 leaders were murdered, while in 2006 one person was.In 2010, there have been already three murders. The latest one took place last week in San Marcos department. Octavio Roblero, member of the Front of Resistance in Defense of Natural Resources of Malacatan (FRENA) was the victim.The report also states that the murders were carried out with firearms, and that 98% of the murders took place shortly after some kind of conflict related to labour claims or defense of resources, and in most cases people where threatened.

comment-yes the nations with worst record of human rigths violations(colombia,peru,guatemala,panama,honduras),against indigneous,peasents,trade unions,are the very same one's with fta(freetrade agreements)with us gov,the same one's that washington praises for being democratic,while those nations wich do protect unions,indigneous and enviroment,are called authoritarian,and undemocratic...

The trial of the former president of Colombia´s Congress and leader of the Conservative party, who stands accused of ties to paramilitaries, began Thursday in Cali.Carlos Garcia Orjuela, the ex-leader of the Partido de la U, is accused of allying with paramilitary groups in the Tolima department in exchange for votes in the 2002 congressional elections. He is currently being held in La Picota prison, south of Bogota.

To date, 62 members of Congress have been accused of paramilitary ties in the "parapolitics" scandal that rocked President Uribe's administration in 2007. Thirty-three have either been arrested or are currently in jail awaiting trial, including the president's cousin Mario Uribe Escobar, another former president of Congress.

A former Mossad officer has alleged the Israeli spy agency has its own "passport factory" to create or doctor passports for use in intelligence operations.Relations between Australia and Israel are under strain after three Australian passports were apparently used by suspects in the killing of top Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in Dubai last month. Dubai police say they are 99 per cent sure Mossad was behind the operation to smother Mabhouh with a pillow in his hotel room.

"They need passports because you can't go around with an Israeli passport, not even a forged one, and get away or get involved with people from the Arab world," he said."They'll shy away right away. So most of these [Mossad] operations are carried out on what's called false flag, which means you pretend to be of another country which is less belligerent to those countries that you're trying to recruit from."If they can obtain blank passports, which they have in the past from Canada, from England, they do. If not, they just manufacture them."

What is the role for a new institution like Banco del Sur? The very concept of Banco del Sur defies basic tenets of international lending and development. Should it ever come to pass, Banco del Sur will have a negative effect on the region's development and credit worthiness and dearly cost its members.

There are other organizations that already provide lending support and services in Latin America based on much more sustainable and market-logical criteria. Simplifying, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is there to provide liquidity (and those that do not like it can self-insure through the accumulation of foreign reserves), and the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) are there to finance social and infrastructure projects in the region.

In 1998, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) awarded $54 million in loans to the Haitian government to improve the country's patchwork, crumbling public-water system. The money was intended to bring clean water to people who for many years had been denied this basic human right, with devastating consequences for public health. Ten years later, however, this desperately needed money has not produced a single improvement to Haiti's water supply in the city designated to be one of the first recipients.

“As a major source of financing for economic and social development in Latin America, the IDB has a responsibility not to fund environmental destruction and human rights abuses,” said Andrea Samulon of Rainforest Action Network. “The IDB is shirking that duty, and its mechanism for accountability on these issues is practically nonexistent.”

The drug war has failed to achieve even its stated goals, as critics have long emphasized—there has been no net decrease in illicit drug production and trafficking, even while the devastating human and environmental costs of drug war militarism continue to rise. Meanwhile, rarely discussed is the drug war’s great success in helping to achieve unstated goals: extending global U.S. military hegemony and extending the reach of the legal U.S. drug economy, which often depends on raw materials and consumer markets in the very same territories forced to participate in the U.S.-led drug control regime.

Yet the administration’s acknowledgement of “shared responsibilities” has helped only to cement the ongoing militarization of the region. The devastating impact of this approach has been well documented: increased levels of violence, political corruption, and a blurring of the line between the police, the military, and drug cartels in ways that profoundly undermine democracy and human rights.Bolivia again provides a useful example of how drug war spectacle masks political conflict and how decertification is used as a tool to criminalize challenges to U.S. hegemony.

The Obama administration’s decertification of Bolivia, continuing the Bush administration’s policy by maintaining Bolivia’s suspension from the ATDPEA, defies any rational, fact-based justification.22 It seems instead to be a retaliatory move for actions the Bolivian government took in the fall of 2008, when it did not renew USAID contracts, accused the DEA of spying, expelled the U.S. ambassador, and alleged that the United States was providing covert support to the violent and economically powerful U.S.-aligned opposition.23

about me

i seek no recognition for any info on this blog.all information is purely for informational purposes.its a blog created with the sole intention of relating already well documented facts(and not well known facts)that are for everyone to share.Its in dedication to all the truthers ...